TERFed Out (of Ceramic Art London, (CAL,) by the Craft Potters Association, (CPA,) and Central St. Martin's, (CSM.)

What Happened - the cancellation itself

I had been booked to give a talk at Ceramic Art London,  (CAL,) the annual flagship event of the Craft Potters Association, (CPA,) of which I am a member. It takes place at Central St. Martin's, (CSM,) part of the University of the Arts, London, (UAL.) 

The original booking, in 2020, had included a plan to display my pots which formed part of a project with women@thewell, a women only service based in Kings Cross, that supports both women in prostitution and those at risk. It also helps them to find ways out. This last part is particularly controversial among students and academics, including senior academics who often call themselves 'sex positive,' or 'sex workers rights activists.' They are neither of these things. Rather they are supporters of the complete decriminalisation and deregulation of the sex trade which is an entirely different thing. 

My talk was about the project with women@thewell. There's a good collection of pictures here from the display at Fore Street Library in Edmonton, London. 

In February 2022, after a two year Covid gap, CAL was in its final stages of preparation. I got a phone call from Toby Brundin, Director of the CPA, to say that the CPA council had decided to cancel the booking: 'In the time since the talk was originally scheduled in 2020, we have been made aware that its inclusion in the programme may cause the event to be disrupted, leading to possible delay or even closure. ' This was the reason given over the phone and later that day by email. 

What we Know and Don't Know

In 2022, I had no indication of who or what was threatening to cause disruption on such a scale that it could delay or close a major three day event. The potter and blogger, Marshall Colman, had a conversation with Brundin some days after my talk was cancelled and was told it was because of my Gender Critical beliefs. He reported this in his blog here. 

Clearly not a single person involved had read either the Forstater Judgement or the Reindorf Report. 

I  also saw a copy of a letter stating that just my presence in the building would be enough to incite a heated protest. I was subsequently told I could not come to the event or enter the building at all. 

The Response

A petition calling for the restoration of my talk and a letter to the CPA signed by 74 members and associates made no difference. The support from other artists and potters was encouraging as were the many messages of sympathy but the CPA and CSM did not shift their position at all. 

Legal Action

I took legal action. The claim was against the CPA for discrimination against my Gender Critical beliefs with a further claim against CSM/UAL.  Levins Solicitors acted for me. Subject Access Requests, (SARs) were sent but to no avail. CSM did respond but their response was so heavily redacted that it revealed little. The CPA's response was to treat the SAR with contempt. We then moved forward to 'orders for disclosure.' These are the basics. 

The Impact

Additional statement added June 25th 2023 - legal action is now concluded. We have reached a settlement. Please see the statement from Levin's who represented me in this case. There is no gagging order so I am now free to say there was no verbal or written threat of any protest from anyone. The organiser at CSM/UAL feared there may be one based on 'past behaviour' among some students. There was absolutely no evidence of any sort to suggest it might happen in this case though. 

Ends. Return to original text from 2022 now fully edited and updated in the light of the result.  

I meanwhile must find a way to continue being an artist knowing that exhibiting in public spaces is almost impossible. 

I know from the legal disclosures that Duncan Hooson, the ceramics lecturer at UAL/CSM who organised the lecture series, was the main protagonist in getting my talk cancelled and me banned from the event. He didn't do it alone, he summoned Prof Jeremy Till, the now ex-head of school, who was eager to support him, and seven more support staff including the Dean. They initially agreed the talk should go ahead with additional security, (for what?) but Hooson made it clear in conversation with Toby Brundin, the CPA director, that he needed to get the lecture cancelled altogether. Brundin then persuaded the CPA Council to vote to cancel my talk. He, together with the chair of the CPA Council, Peter Snowdon, agreed they should tell the council members that the threat was real, even though no evidence could be found. The entire thing came from Duncan Hooson's own over-anxious imagination and his fear of the one of his students in particular. 

The legal disclosures reveal some truly unedifying plotting and shows the extent to which academic and support staff at UAL have lost control of their own PR. Cancelling my lecture and banning me was an exercise in appeasement in order to make a public statement to a particular audience - the gender lobby - which, in reality is small and is not inherently powerful. It's powerful only if allowed to be and if that power is facilitated by others - others who, perhaps, intend to benefit in some way from bestowing such favour. It is a perfect example of public scapegoating. 

Press coverage

The press coverage was positive and helpful, from my point of view. You can read Ewan Somerville's piece for the Telegraph here, The Daily Mail's here, along with this piece in Unherd by Julie Bindel and this by Jo Bartosch in Spiked. Jo Bartosch also wrote an excellent piece, The Silencing of Feminist Artists in Spiked in 2019. 

Target

This kind of process can be repeated anywhere now - in any public space or private gallery showing my work or that of any other feminist artist. Activists have even succeeded in getting feminist artists removed from commercial selling sites such as Shopify, Etsy and even Stripe - one of the most common payment systems. As my earlier post on this subject shows, this is not the first time it has happened to me. I have become a target now - probably since 2019 although my cancelling history goes back to 2010. Even someone at Cardiff School of Art raised questions about my coming as a guest to the 2022 degree show - enough to require a meeting and an over-ruling by the Dean. My recent talk at Tate Modern has also had repercussions and I had a planned exhibition cancelled at Burgh House in Hampstead. 

Moving on and a Call for Action

This is not an easy environment to work in. Now I know what did happen, that is clearer still. The artworld as a whole cannot move forward from this impasse without proper conversations, still less a small discipline like ceramics. The fear, anxiety, the look-the-other-way silence and, above all, the studied ignorance has to end. This is where ostracisation starts - with silence, then exclusion. The Forstater Judgement sets out, clearly and unequivocally, that both Gender Critical beliefs and Gender Ideology are 'worthy of respect in a democratic society.' BOTH of them. Not just one. Art worldists need to get a grip on this. 

Art galleries and museums must learn to live within the law and democratic norms. The current situation, in which the artworld resembles a de facto state within a state, with its own laws and customs, is intolerable and cannot continue. Curators, gallerists and Museum staff must learn to work with differences of opinion and learn to deal with conflicting opinions, including those that some may find uncomfortable or offensive. 

Postscript

CAL has now been permanently removed from UAL/CSM. To date, to my knowledge, the CPA have not found an alternative venue for this event which is vitally important to potters. The head of school resigned and has been replaced. And Grayson Perry, - the 'fearless' according to Garth Clark and others - and Chancellor of UAL, still refuses to 'stand with JR Rowling,' because 'that's a hot button issue and I'm not going there.' Clear indication that he is, in fact a TERF but a cowardly one. Think what could follow if he just summoned up the required courage to say what he really thinks, for once.   

Claudia Clare: Survivors and Fighters Talk, Fore Street Library, Edmonton, London N18

Fore Street Library, Edmonton, displayed five pots from 'And the Door Opened,' on December 9th 2021. 

I was invited by Cellina Doswell, chair of REACT Edmonton, the local residents association to talk about the project with women@thewell . The area has, in the last three years or so, been targeted by pimps and traffickers who are bringing women into the area and sexually exploiting them as well as targeting local young women and girls for the same treatment. 

Life has become very difficult for people living in the area, especially the women, who are constantly harassed particularly when on their way home in the evenings. 'Fore Street for All,' is a local initiative, a partnership between Fisher Cheng architects, Artist Hive Studios, REACT Edmonton and Enfield Council to 'reclaim the night economy,' and bring people back on to the streets at night. 

Cellina Doswell and REACT are keen to find ways to support the women who are being brought into the sex trade and are interested in finding out more about how that can be done. We desperately need properly funded and resourced support for sexually exploited women and girls in Enfield and Haringey so I'm hoping we may be able to set up a local support and exiting service that can provide the practical solutions to the many interlocking problems that build up for women in this situation. 

And Evening With Women @the Well and Claudia Clare

An Evening with Women@the Well and Claudia Clare. 

Weds Sept 15th, 2021, 6 - 8pm, doors close 9pm. 

6.30 Claudia Clare - artist working with Women @the Well

6.45 Harriet Wistrich - Founder of the Centre for Women's Justice 

6.55 Lynda Dearlove  - CEO Women @the Well 

7.10 A minute's silence ended with the smashing of the pot, 'Brave Face.' 

The evening includes a display of the pots from our joint project, 'And The Door Opened.'  

I will be talking about the pots and the project and the director of W@W will discuss the work they have been doing over the past 18 months and how Covid has affected the women they support. 

About the Project:

W@W is a women-only service located in Kings Cross dedicated to supporting women whose lives are affected - or at risk of being affected - by prostitution. They also offer support to women wishing to exit the sex trade and help them to identify and overcome the barriers that maybe obstructing that process. 

‘And The Door Opened,’ is a collection of pots, made in partnership with W@W, that illustrate the lives of the women they work with, based on accounts provided by the women themselves. Some of the pots represent the accounts of women survivors who have already exited and others are still involved in prostitution. 

The aim is to enhance the public's understanding of what prostitution is and to show that, with the right support, girls and women do not need to live and die exploited in the sex trade – there are ways out.

Remembering Atefeh, (2011-13)

 

Remembering Atefeh, (2011-13)

Atefeh Rajavi Sahaaleh was a girl living in a small town, Neka, in Northern Iran. Her mother died when she was a small child and her father was an addict and neglected her. She was raised mostly by her grandparents. She was an isolated, lonely child and extremely vulnerable. At the age of twelve she was raped and prostituted by a taxi driver who was formerly a member of the Revolutionary Guard. She  - not her pimp/rapists - was imprisoned, numerous times and, when she threatened to go public, she was sentenced to death and hanged, on August 15th, aged sixteen, for 'crimes against chastity.' 

Even in Iran, it is illegal to execute a child so her documents were falsified. She is not the only one and Iran is not the only country that does this. The response in Iran was muted at first because the state owned and controlled media covered it up. Word go out though and women got increasingly angry. 

The criminalisation of underage girls and corresponding impunity of their abusers well be horribly familiar to sex trade survivors the world over but, in Iran, where the bodies of women and girls are used to symbolise the male (dis)/'honour' of the nation state, it takes on another dimension: in effect the state is the pimp. 

This pot was made with a group of Iranian friends, mostly refugees, both men and women, and was smashed in front of the Iranian Embassy in London, August 15th, 2011. I rebuilt it, leaving some pieces out so you can see the image of Atefeh inside. It remains the only image there is of her - it's from her ID card. 

The edges of the gaps are picked out in gold to honour her short life and her brave attempt to fight the injustices she faced, alone and hugely disadvantaged. 

Nasrine Sotoudeh, an extraordinarily courageous, Iranian human rights lawyer, made the following observation on Atefeh's case and countless others like hers: 

"The courts somehow deal much more rigorously with the women than with the men. The weakest point in our downfall is that this is happening right in front of our eyes but, sadly, we pretend that we just don't see it." 

Sotoudeh has herself been imprisoned and beaten on numerous occasions for standing up for girls like Atefeh and trying to represent and defend them in court. 

Today we remember Atefeh, as the Taliban secure their hold on Kabul and the whole of Afghanistan, and women's sex-based, human rights take another turn for the worse. These are not good times for women. 

Cancel Culture: the reality for one artist

Cancel Culture: Introduction

From time to time, someone on social media asks if 'Cancel Culture' is real. This is my account of what I have experienced, on and off, since 2010 - it is not definitive, or necessarily representative, but it is authentic. It is one artist's experience of a mix of censorship, threat of the same, or 'de-platforming,' (being disinvited after an invitation has been accepted, confirmed and, in some cases signed off as part of a contract,) over a period of eleven years. I also discuss the impact and reasons why it happens.

2010: Shattered, Keighley Castle

Summary: the road to Hell is paved with ignorance and good intentions

After two years of planning and 30 days before opening, I received an email from the exhibitions organiser at Bradford Metropolitan Council’s Museum’s and Galleries, to say one of my pots would be withdrawn from the proposed show, ‘Shattered,’ because of the ‘clear vagina imagery.’ I noticed they'd used an image of that pot for their publicity and pointed that out. I also lobbied locally among people of influence I knew. A diligent local journalist noticed an unusual silence about the forthcoming show so investigated. He found me and my blog posts and wrote an article in the Keighley News. The local vicar complained it was censorship. The battle raged. I won a partial victory. The pot was reinstated, but only one side was made visible. Visitors complained that they couldn't see the work properly. I sought compensation and got it - in kind – in the form of magazine quality photos of the show. 

For the record ‘Shattered’ comprised five pots, each 2 metres high. It was ‘Princess Hymen’ that was withdrawn. There is no vagina imagery as such. The image is woman opening her make up bag. It is a visual pun, certainly, but hardly likely to offend. During the installation of the show, I was told that one of the complaints was that I'd ‘criticised their culture,’ by denouncing FGM, criticising hymen reconstruction, and questioning the entire concept of the virgin body. 

Princess Hymen is, first and foremost, a feminist work. It is about the concept of virginity, the obsession with the virgin body that only ever applies to girls and women, and the devastating impact this has on girls and women of all ages. The immediate assumption was that feminism would ‘offend the local Muslims.’ No one had thought to consult any of the local Muslim populations though, so on what basis was this decision made? And by whom? This was the second time a Museum had slandered both me, my work, and their own audiences, notably their Muslim audiences, and tried to dress up their own grotesque cultural relativism and cultural and religious ignorance, and present them as anti racism or at least some kind of community sensitivity. The first time was the same work which was to show at a venue in London. A similar anxiety was expressed. That time organiser understood and accepted that she couldn't know everything so, wisely, sought advice from someone who knew more. After a meeting, her fears allayed, the show went ahead. It was extended for a week by popular demand - notably from the local Muslim women. 

2016: Five Jugs

Summary: racism masquerading as anti-racism, coupled with incompetence.

After the above fiascos, I had sworn I would never show in a public sector space again. I broke my own promise when I was invited to show five jugs in an exhibition at People's History Museum, Manchester. 

There was a complaint by 11am on the first morning. I had represented, on a jug, a protest by French Arab women in Paris. One of them had written ‘Fuck the Sharia’ in English on her stomach. I depicted her and her slogan. The complainer declared she was offended shouted about it on Twitter. Her call to outrage was largely ignored but I responded with some care, as is my habit. I do it for the silent readers. By lunchtime the same day, I received an email from the Museum director saying they'd withdrawn another jug with a picture of a weeping man on it. ‘We thought it might be the Prophet Mohammed and that someone might be offended.’ In this case, no one had complained. I explained that depicting the Prophet isn't blasphemy - venerating the depiction is the blasphemy – and that to take sides in what amounts to a sectarian disagreement is extraordinarily ill advised. I also observed that there is no prohibition of blasphemy in British law. The title of the show, by the way, was ‘Ideas Worth Fighting For.’ 

All three of the above occasions were examples of a common art world problem. It can be summed up like this: ‘There's a great big hairy scary Muslim out there and I’m afraid he's going to OBJECT and possibly explode.’ It is fear of conflict, fear of disapproval, fear of peer group disapproval and ignorance of the issues, and acute anxiety about their own audiences brought about by simply not knowing who they are. It is also, it must be said, straight forward racism.  All of these are masqueraded as anti-racism. 

2019: And the Door Opened - event planned for Crossbones Cemetery, Southwark

Summary: I am accused by sex workers rights activists of whoring myself to oligarchs 

Venue: Crossbones Cemetery, a 17th and 18th century burial ground for the "outcast poor," including a great many sexually exploited and prostituted women and girls. It was an early experiment in full decriminalisation of the sex trade. The women were licensed by the church to be exploited without fear of arrest so that men could abuse them with impunity. The women and girls were still denied Christian burial so were buried there unmarked and unremembered. My event, in partnership with women@thewell, an exiting service based in Kings Cross, was to be a memorial event, involving the smashing of a pot, to remember and name of all the women and girls murdered in prostitution since records have been kept. The host organisation, Bankside Open Spaces Trust, (BOST,) was keen and the event was agreed as was Arts Council funding. Then came the email: it was decided we couldn't proceed this event because, to paraphrase, ‘you sell your work in a Mayfair Gallery. You're too commercial.’ In fact, what had happened, was this: I had been invited to give a presentation of the proposed event for ten minutes to BOST and Friends of Crossbones. Half way through the presentation, three Phd students came in and proceeded to grill me for an hour. ‘It's too negative. We're "sex positive.”’ (“Sex positive?” I thought that old chestnut went out in the 1990s.) They were among the volunteers from Friends of Crossbones and disapproved of the event on political grounds. They duly withdrew their volunteer labour leaving BOST no option but to pull out. 

I had notched up another cancellation. Yet again, feminism was silenced. This time I had the wrong political response the sex trade and, again, those doing the cancelling were evasive and not entirely truthful. The ‘commercial’ line was a smoke screen and BOST knew it but wouldn’t admit to the real issue. They were also possibly in breach of contract which may have accounted for the studied silence. Fundamentally though, people who cancel, ‘no platform,’ or censor, always lie about the reasons because they know, damn well, they're doing something wrong.

The impact: 

i) Constantly watching over your shoulder to see where the next hit will come from. 

Add to these, two more instances worth discussing. One, in 2018, was to take part in a show about Clause 28 to be held at Sussex University. I was asked what I had learnt from Clause 28. I replied that a central part of the legislation was an attack on free speech and expression and suggested showing 'Ballad of Sister Bergdorf,' a new piece just completed. I also stated that if any of my work was shown, I would ask them to sign a contract to agree to leave it on display no matter how many people complain. At this point, all contact ceased without explanation. This may simply be that none of the work I offered was consistent with the aim of the show but, after a while, one becomes a little paranoid – hence my insistence on a contract. (Edit: Jan 4th 2022: the curator and director of this show was Dr Francesco Ventrella, the lecturer supporting and advising the students who repeatedly threatened Professor Kathleen Stock.) 

ii) The chill factor

The other instance worthy of note was in 2017. The Woman's Hour Craft Prize stated in the T&C's – paraphrasing again – ‘No blasphemy and nothing that might offend. We reserve the right to remove work from shows as needed.’ I had considered applying but, instead, wrote to the organisers to complain, received a ‘holding email’ and have heard nothing since. The prize was organised by The Crafts Council, the BBC, and the V&A. The Crafts Council is a QUANGO - now, I think a govt department - the V&A is also a QUANGO. These are not neutral spaces, their CEOs are government appointees. They also, apparently, see fit to make up laws when they feel like it. The result for artists is either to self censor, or stay out of it. I, along with a number of others, chose the latter.

iii) Harassment

Then there is ‘TERFs Out Of Art.’ This is a Twitter account. It is a network of some four thousand artworldists, about half of whom are professionals, some from major art galleries, museums, universities, and studios. Their followers include some well known writers and curators - people who can make or break you. They listed me as ‘verboten,’ within 24 hours of the launch. On top of that I was listed by Oxford Brookes University LGBT society as a ‘forbidden’ artist shortly after I had given a talk on the right to free expression in 2018…

What does it all mean? Why does it happen? Who benefits and from what?

In the art world ‘cancelling’ someone is a way of constructing networks and communities. – gangs, if you like. In large part, cancelling someone, and showing you've cancelled them, is a way to advance your career and, potentially, secure an income or even make some real money. Politics, especially the politics around equality of opportunity and advancement, has become thoroughly corrupted. These days, unfortunately, the words "diversity" and "intersectional," have lost most of their meaning if, indeed, they were ever fully understood. 

Who does the cancelling?

‘Cancel Culture,’ for artists rarely takes the same form as it does for journalists and academics. In my case it has been my work, rather than me, that has been ‘cancelled.’ 2019, the Crossbones Cemetery debacle is the exception - though for other artists, that is now becoming the rule. The ‘Shattered’ fiasco involved Bradford Metropolitan Council and Haringey Council so it is clear that the impulse to control and censor most often comes from organisations close to government. They are powerful. If you ignore Cancel Culture, and delude yourself that it is just and a few students and that the main source of complaint is from ‘the Tories’ or ‘racists’ or whoever your favourite target is, you leave yourself open to the same treatment. As you have seen, most of my experiences of cancellation have been motivated by ignorance, racism, and misogyny, not by knowledge, anti-racism, or feminism.

The Consequences

I have provided a snap shot of what 'Cancel Culture' is in action. For the artist, it is both demoralising and damaging. If you cannot show your work in public spaces, your career will eventually die. It never happens to the big people - Grayson Perry, for example, has never been cancelled. It only happens to those of us regarded as disposable - which suggests it is done so the canceller/censor can parade their own credentials to their target audience rather than any serious desire to protect their audiences from whatever they perceive as harmful. I do not believe for a second that any of these people really believed I was doing or saying anything harmful. They were appeasing something or someone they understand to be powerful or influential. The losses are significant for me though. Bit by bit the cancelled artist falls away from the artworld radar and becomes invisible. Both I and my work is perceived as troublesome and, contrary to a widely believed myth, the artworld seeks safety way ahead of creative risk. 

Edit 4th Jan 2022: I have now left the gallery that represented me from 2017-2021. There are many reasons but among is that I don't want to bring trouble to their door. This isn't altruism on my part, it is self interest. The situation for artists has heated up considerably over the past year and more and more female artists are coming forward having been hounded out of studios, dropped from exhibitions, excluded from selling sites such at Etsy, and deplatformed by universities. In spite of the heightened rhetoric, the majority of artworldists are still shockingly ignorant of the issues and are therefore wholly unequipped to fight the battles when they come. For this reason, I judge it is better to be independent for the time being. 

Suvivors and Fighters, 2021

'I'm Not The Criminal,' 2019, A Pot from 'And The Door Opened'

'Im Not The Criminal,' 2019, 60h x 38w cm  

I'm Not The Criminal

The dominant image of, 'I'm Not The Criminal,' is the portrait of Fiona Broadfoot, a sex trade survivor and campaigner for the abolition of the sex trade. She is one of three women who, with the Centre for Women's Justice, brought the judicial review to have the criminal convictions of exited women removed from the records. Currently, those convictions remain on police records for one hundred years - longer than the life of the woman herself - surely one of the most inhumane and vindictive legal sanctions we have in Britain and wholly unjustifiable. The title of the pot comes from the hashtag adopted for the campaign, #I'mNoCriminal. I am indebted to Fiona for her help with this project, 'And The Door Opened,' which I'm doing in partnership with Women @the Well.  You can read more about her on this website - scroll right until you find her. 

Two Titles

'I'm Not The Criminal,' in its unbroken state, was called, 'The Invisible Man.' On the outside, it depicts a burlesque of hideous characters on the sex trade merry-go-round. These are the men who buy sex, also known as punters/johns/tricks. You can call them what you want - they amount to the same thing: they are the men who pay to abuse exploited and prostituted women and girls. This is not an, 'equal financial transaction,' as some claim, they are buying the submission and, crucially, the silence of the women they abuse. It also depicts the pimps, brothel owners, hotel and escort agency owners, travel tour guides who run 'stag nights,' and so on. It depicts the men who 'groom,' in gangs, the church men, the legal teams who dismiss the testimony of the girls as 'unreliable,' and the police who arrest the exploited girls and women but not the pimps or punters. One of the reasons these pots are broken and rebuilt is to smash the power and dominance of the men and to bring out and emphasise the courage and persistence of the women to speak out, ‘break the silence,’ and campaign for change. This is also the reason for the changing title – it expresses the women’s refusal to submit to the social and legal sanctions imposed on them, and on all prostituted women and girls, and their capacity to wrest the power from the dominant abusive men to effect change in their own lives and in society.

Why ‘Invisible?’

'The Invisible Man,' was so called because the public conversation and focus of every second of media coverage from obscure internet channels to social media to mainstream TV and radio to print journalism, is on the women. It is hardly ever on the men. The men of the sex trade - who are its market, its life blood - the abusers and profiteers, define and embody the sex trade but they escape scrutiny and act with impunity day in day out while the women, the abused and exploited, get the blame and stigma. I am not wholly opposed to stigma - I just think it needs to be relocated - on to the men. I owe this title to Julie Bindel whose excellent book, 'The Pimping of Prostitution,' Palgrave Macmillan, 2017 includes a chapter on this subject, called 'The Invisible Man.' I would also like to alert the reader the work of Raquel Rosario Sanchez who is currently research men who buy sex using the reviews they write of the women they abuse in prostitution.

How and why: the images on the pot – inside and out

The pot is painted on the inside as well the outside. The inside is painted as the pot is being built up. The colours inside are lighter and brighter than the exterior colours so that once the pot has been broken and rebuilt the interior is clearly visible through the gaps. There are images of women on horseback painted inside. It is an allegorical and idealistic image of escape – as though the merry go round horses have come to life to carry the women away to a safer life. The portrait of Fiona Broadfoot was painted on the biggest shard, after the pot was broken. This was to ensure her image was complete. There are images of broken faces of women inside – again I have no wish to deny the damage the sex trade does to women and girls – but I do not want these to be the only images visible.

The merry-go-round motif on this pot is one I have used many times. It is perfect for the dynamic, turning form of a pot and allows a satirical, grotesque characterisation of the men depicted. The Merry-go-round horses get more vicious every time I paint them. These are biting and kicking the men, bucking them off and trampling on them. I want to express the violence of the sex trade - it is necessary to do so. I do not want to hide from it but I have no desire to reproduce images of sexualised violence against women by these men in pictorial form. Another reason to smash the pot is to expresses the violence.

Breaking pots

This pot – in its first state, as ‘The Invisible Man,’ was broken as part of a march against the sex trade in Bradford. (This is an earlier post on this blog.) It was also a memorial procession which ended with a calling out of the all the names of women murdered in prostitution since records have been kept. At the end of a minute's silence, the pot was smashed. The shards were collected and taken back to the studio. There I added the new images, glazed the shards, fired them and then pieced the pot back together, leaving gaps through which the images of the women who have survived the sex trade become visible. The gaps are edged in gold leaf to frame and emphasise the women and to honour their courage and their struggle to survive.

A fired pot can be pieced back together so that it, near enough, retrieves its original form. It is more fragile now and will break again if subject to further pressure but it is remarkably robust and will last well into the future. The method for making the pots is based on the expression, 'I was shattered. Now I'm piecing myself slowly back together.' Or 'I have to completely rebuild my life.' These and similar expressions are commonly used by anyone who has experienced major trauma. The process is a metaphor, in effect, for the trauma and the process of surviving and living into the future. Sex trade survivors often carry a deeply embodied trauma. They are vulnerable to further pressures but, nonetheless, many survive and, eventually, thrive.

Pots - photo credit: Sylvain Deleu.

Smashed pot - photo credit: Studio Twelve, Bradford

Women @the Well, (W@W,) is a women-only service located in Kings Cross dedicated to supporting women whose lives are affected, or at risk of being affected, by prostitution. It also provides support to exit prostitution. 

‘And The Door Opened,’ is a series of events with displays of Claudia’s pots, with talks and demonstrations that illustrate the lives of the women supported by W@W.

The aim is to enhance the public’s understanding of what prostitution is, to name the abuse and exploitation, and to show that, with the right support, girls and women do not need to live and die exploited in the sex trade – there are ways out.

'February, Dark and Cold,' 2019, a pot from 'And The Door Opened,'

'February Dark and Cold,' 2019, 63 h x 28 w cm 

Hand built earthenware pot, slip-painted inside and out with sgraffito drawing through the slip. Bisque fired. Smashed by dropping it into a box on the floor. The box helps to contain the flying shards but it also breaks the fall to some extent so the shattering isn't so dramatic. Some of the larger pieces were dropped again to encourage them to break a bit more. The shards were then collected up and glazed, then fired, and the pieces reassembled with some left out so the viewer can glimpse the images inside. Broken edges gilded in gold leaf.

About the pot
This is the account of a young woman, a fifteen year old girl at the start of her story, whose mother had a job that frequently took her abroad. She seems to have had no other parent or guardian so was left alone. The account is sparse. At some point she has a son, has a drink and drug problem, and also mental health difficulties. When W@W first meet her, she is being sold for sex on the London streets. They help her to 'return to her northern town,' to her family. She leaves again. It appears there is sexual abuse and/or exploitation but it is not spelled out. She returns to London and is street homeless - and immensely vulnerable to (further?) exploitation in prostitution. She describes the cold dark damp of February and the violence on the London streets. At some point she is arrested and is in prison for a while. Once out of prison she contacts W@W again and gets support with the drugs and alcohol problems. They also help her to find a housing solution. This very young woman with a history of abuse going back to her early teenage years now has an interlocking mix of problems which, together, make housing and a future life immensely difficult. The pot has a number of gaps and cracks. This young woman's process of mending her life is only midway, probably. She still has a long way to go. She misses her child. It is unclear where her mother and the rest of her family is. What is clear is that she knows W@W are there to provide support when she needs it.

Photo credit: Sylvain Deleu.

Women @the Well, (W@W,) is a women-only service located in Kings Cross dedicated to supporting women whose lives are affected, or at risk of being affected, by prostitution. It also provides support to exit prostitution. 

‘And The Door Opened,’ is a series of events with displays of Claudia’s pots, with talks and demonstrations that illustrate the lives of the women supported by W@W.

The aim is to enhance the public’s understanding of what prostitution is, to name the abuse and exploitation, and to show that, with the right support, girls and women do not need to live and die exploited in the sex trade – there are ways out.